Paul Stanley Felt Michael Bolton Took Too Much Credit for 1 of Kiss’ Songs

TL;DR:

• Paul Stanley discussed Michael Bolton’s role in crafting a Kiss song.
• Stanley said Kiss’ fans believed the song was entirely written by Bolton.
• The song became one of the band’s only top 10 singles in the United States.

Kiss’ classic rock songs are very different from Michael Bolton’s songs. Despite this, Bolton has a writing credit on one of Kiss’ biggest hits. Kiss’ Paul Stanley revealed Bolton didn’t even know the lyrics to the song before it became a hit.

Kiss fans thought Paul Stanley had nothing to do with 1 of the fans’ songs

In his 2014 book Face the Music: A Life Exposed, Stanley discussed his band’s album Hot in the Shade. “Hot in the Shade hatched a hit single, ‘Forever,’ that allowed us to go out on a major tour again,” he recalled. “The video got into heavy rotation on MTV, and we put together a package tour, rotating in some young MTV-friendly bands like Faster Pussycat, Danger Danger, and Winger.”

Bolton has a writing credit on “Forever.” “Funny thing about ‘Forever,’ because it was somewhat uncharacteristic for Kiss, people pegged it as ‘a Michael Bolton song,’ since he was co-credited as songwriter,” Stanley wrote. “Surely I couldn’t have written it.”

Kiss had to fax the lyrics of ‘Forever’ to Michael Bolton

Stanley said Bolton had a minimal role in writing “Forever.” “In fact, after an all too brief initial writing session at the Sunset Marquis, Michael had so little to do with it that once it became a hit, he asked the Kiss office to fax him over a copy of the lyrics,” Stanley revealed. 

Stanley revealed what happened after Bolton learned the lyrics of “Forever.” “Only then did he start performing the song in concert — and introducing it as a song he wrote for Kiss,” Stanley remembered. Stanley saw the success of “Forever” as the vindication of his own musical sensibilities.

‘Forever’ became more popular than all of the band’s songs except for 2

“Forever” became one of Kiss’ biggest hits in the United States. The song peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990, staying on the chart for 17 weeks. It was Kiss’ first top 20 single since “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” in 1979. Only one Kiss single — the double A-side of “Beth” and “Detroit Rock City” — charted higher in the U.S.

“Forever” appeared on the album Hot in the Shade. The album reached No. 29 on the Billboard 200. Hot in the Shade remained on the chart for 36 weeks. None of the band’s subsequent albums performed as well commercially on the chart.

“Forever” remains an interesting connection between Bolton and Kiss even if Stanley said he mostly wrote the song himself.